The Case for CORELa cuestión de CORE

The Case for CORE

“It’s hard to realize that I might never get out of debt,” said Walter “Hawk” Newsome.

“It’s a harsh reality.”

Newsome, who serves as president of Black Lives Matter Greater New York, was speaking of the cost of his education, which includes a law degree.

“I spent almost two decades as a student,” Newsome said. Though he remarked that his education prepared him well for a public service career, it left him with $200,000 in student loan debt, which he wonders how he will ever pay off.

Newsome said the high cost of education makes attending college impossible for many of his fellow Bronxites.

“It has the lowest educational attainment of any borough,” he stated. “It is very discouraging that the average student acquires $32,000 in school loan debt, while families in my community survive with annual salaries which are half of that amount.”

Newsome’s Black Lives Matter chapter is part of a coalition of education advocates that released a plan on March 9 to improve college affordability in New York State.

The coalition, consisting of more than 30 member groups, has launched a campaign titled College Opportunity and Resource Expansion (CORE) that calls for an expansion of the Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) to include undocumented New York high school graduates, as well as the establishment of a new zero-interest loan program.

The plan seeks to increase the maximum TAP awards available to full-time students and raise that program’s household income threshold from $80,000 to $125,000.

The CORE coalition urged Governor Andrew Cuomo and state lawmakers to pass legislation to bring the proposal to fruition, noting that students are getting buried in debt before they even start their careers.

State Senator Marisol Alcántara supports the legislation.

“We simply should not be in more debt before we really even start to make money,” remarked CORE coalition member Ivy Teng Lei at a press conference at CUNY’s Graduate School of Journalism.

Member groups within the CORE campaign include the New York Immigration Coalition, Alliance for Quality Education, Community Voices Heard, Hispanic Federation and NYS Immigrant Action Fund.

Advocates said that students are falling further in debt as the cost of education in New York State has increased in the past decade.

A report by State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli indicated that student loan debt in New York has grown to $82 billion over the last 10 years. The number of students taking out college loans in New York rose by more than 41 percent to 2.8 million over that time, the report said.

Members of CORE asked Cuomo to create a $50 million “loan fund” to help academically qualified college students.

Though Cuomo proposed a college plan in his 2017 State of the State Address to provide free tuition at SUNY and CUNY colleges to students making up to $125,000, education advocates said that proposal’s eligibility rules are too strict, as students must complete 120 credit hours in four years to remain eligible.

“I might never get out of debt,” said Walter “Hawk” Newsome (center).

“What if English isn’t your first language? What if you don’t do well in one class, fail it and just miss the credit requirement? I’m against Cuomo’s plan,” said State Senator Marisol Alcántara.

“If Cuomo were the progressive he keeps claiming he wants to be, he would pass CORE,” remarked Zakiyah Ansari of Alliance for Quality Education (AQE).

Hebh Jamal, a high school senior, said students are often forced to choose a college based on lower cost, rather than if that school is the best fit for their education needs.

“I’m picking the college that’s going to decide the next four years of my life, and the single issue that’s going to decide that is, how much money are they going to give me?” she remarked.

“Education has been under attack in this country,” Hebh said. “When you invest in your students, it will help the rest of society. Education is the foundation of what makes us great.”

Advocating for CORE

The coalition consists of 30 member groups.

The CORE coalition is urging New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo and the state legislature to pass College Opportunity and Resource Expansion (CORE). CORE increases TAP (Tuition Assistance Program) awards, expands eligibility to include undocumented New York high school graduates, and launches a new zero-interest loan program.

The package includes:

Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) Provision Expansion

The program will Increase TAP awards and opportunities by:

Raising the household income threshold from $80,000 to $125,000;

Increasing the maximum TAP funding award for Fulltime students from $5,165 to $6,500 over the next two years with minimum TAP at $1000; and

Extending ​Students with Disabilities TAP extension to be 2 years,

Reinstating TAP access for graduate programs.

Create a zero-interest “New York Achieve Loan Program”

Utilize New York State fund to create a $50 million “loan fund” for academically qualified college students at no cost

TAP access for undocumented students

The program will extend TAP access to undocumented youth who:

Arrived in the US before age 16, and

Graduated from a New York high school or pass a New York accredited high school equivalency program